Today as I inch closer to the Golden Mark of 50 (still some time remaining to pause & celebrate the Golden Jubilee), here’s my first golden advice to all my contemporaries who are going through such phase in life (of ageing & becoming irrelevant sort of) & it’s very straight & simple!

Change your decade bracket from 40 to 50 years (40-50 yrs) to 45 – 55 years and how does that help!!? In one shot, you come on the right side of your ageing decade & then start looking fresh at the 2^nd part of the decade and with new vigor, a fresh set of planning & readjusting to furnish the unmet GOALS. How this ‘mental/ hypothetical readjustment’ helps me is gives me more than 5 years now to think about by GOALS, mainly at professional front & psychologically also gives a big boost to my enthusiasm to achieve more & do more in terms of what I can quickly do in my professional journey & meet & beat new milestones. And I’m sure, if you are above 45 years bracket, try & do this ‘mental/ hypothetical readjustment/ resetting’ and you will find that you have much better chance to fulfill your goals of this new decade…

But most importantly, I would like to touch upon the biggest challenge the AGEING poses to one who cross 45 years & come near to 50, is becoming irrelevant or losing the shine what one enjoyed in the prime time of their LIFE & CAREER. At the work front, the biggest challenge one faces is the ‘feeling of becoming more dispensable with each passing year’.

At one point of time, when I thought no one can do ‘Healthcare Specialist Communications’ better than me & my Firm, now I see so many new young & old Folks climbing up high the Ladder, new Firms shining bright & trying to conquer this space!! But does that mean that with immense skill set & experience under your grip, along with fantastic track record, name & credibility of the past, you may still become irrelevant, loose your shine or fade away? You may be wrong…. And when you face such a situation, you can relate to a similar situation faced by the ‘iss sadi ke mahanayak’ none other that Mr Amitabh Bachchan.

So I’ll try use this analogy to push forward my point of view and some common sense analysis (if this common sense is still common in my thoughts & action), most importantly to justify & give myself (as well as many in my age bracket & in similar situation) a morale booster on the day when I cross another milestone of my ‘ageing’ with many more milestones yet left unachieved in professional as well as personal LIFE!

What I mean by this Amitabh Bacchchan ANALOGY, please allow me to explain here (though most of the facts are already there in the Public Domain, as much as Mr Bachchan himself).

There’s nothing new about Mr AB Sr.’s dominance in the Film Industry for 2 & more decades starting from his Zanzeer hit to his last leg films as lead actor (Coolie, etc.), everyone is aware of his popularity across the globe & the Coolie incidence which almost shook the entire country (on the scale when we lost legends like Chacha Nehru or later Mrs Gandhi & his best friend of that time- Mr Rajiv Gandhi), in spite of the fact that Bachchan saheb was only ‘severely injured’ while performing his professional duties.

But what was more daring & unique and that either we don’t know or we ignore, but what gives most of us a ‘huge lesson to learn’ with respect to – patience, endurance, perseverance & most importantly ‘the fighting back spirit’. When Mr AB ‘s career as a Lead Actor was fading (that would be probably when he crossed 45 age or so) & the new stars were shining up, that’s when the KHAN era in the Film Industry started. The insiders of Bollywood who not only remember & talk about the ‘infamous’ incidence of Mr AB walking with his friend Late Sri Amar Singh at a glittering award function, when the Organizers close to Shah Rukh Khan didn’t give him the front seat and he was forced to sit at the back & he left that place in ‘pain’ & also probably feeling too ‘left out’!!

Just imagine his mental situation & the demoralization he must be going through when he was asked by a Lucknow based Industrialist when his younger brother visited this UP Business Tycoon for help, in order to bail him out of the ‘ABCL Crisis’ and a possible bankruptcy Mr AB Sr. was facing in his bad days, he was asked to meet in person over a cup of coffee & then that Cheque (gratia) would be handed over to Mr Bachchan himself…. many such situations he would have come across in this phase (between 45 to 55 years of his fading phase of the professional career), complimented with the Fact that he was now only a ‘yester year mega star’ whose BOX Office charisma was already announced by the media as ‘the thing of the past’, meaning he was already written off by the Film Pundits & his replacements were already taking a ‘larger than life’ position in forms of Shah Rukh, Salman, Aamir KHAN’s in this new India which was now moving towards economic liberalization and poised to become a global economy, where Amitabh Bachchan was not their ‘Box Office Mega Star’ any more.

No one can be like him, what Mr Bachchan achieved (& is still achieving/setting new milestones in his professional journey with each passing day, each new episode of KBC & the out of box films he still manages to deliver… & who can forget his face popping every hour on the TV screen with more than a dozen Ads for a wide range of Brands he still endorses on popular media). But its’ imperative to definitely learn how ‘he would have coped that tough 10 years of his CAREER, when he was almost written off & would have been forced to do many things against his wish & his stature and many of such things would have been demeaning for him at that time… & the fear of ‘uncertainty’ swinging over his head all the time?

None of us can either reach that ‘popularity & professional success stature’, but the situation & the scenarios we face in such stage are almost similar, particularly when we have achieved a certain success in our CAREER & we have that ‘fear of losing that position’ or not ‘achieving similar heights/ status’ when the AGE & the TIME is not with us, i.e. it’s the ‘fading time of our career’ and we still want to ‘hold on it’ & make all efforts to ‘remain relevant’.

That’s when we need to remember people like Mr Amitabh Bachchan who is a REEL LIFE as well as  REAL LIFE case in point, to learn from, to emulate how Mr Bachchan would have fought back, shown the highest level of endurance & came out as a WINNER again, not only getting his position & glory back, but he did it with a lot of humility, grace & in a distinguished way a true connoisseur… up to a level that his 2^nd Innings would always be remembered with a lot of love & affection & pride by all his lovers & followers & fans across the world. His 2^nd Innings will be more HISTORIC than his 1^st, which he himself would have not imaged just when he started into it!

The best thing to learn from him, when you wish to set new GOALS in life … that set your Goals around a subject/ to achieve some purpose & not around a person/ individual or a group of persons. It this fight back, you would not find a single incidence when he did ‘name calling’ or discrediting any of his acquaintance who would have not respected the way he deserved that when he was down & out. He only focused on what he wanted to achieve & worked tirelessly to achieve that through his hard work & determination, without loosing focus (in spite of the fact that he was always under the highest level of media glare)!!

So our status may never be what Mr Bachcahn’s is, nor our milestone can be like him… but the scenarios & situation are almost similar & the ‘fear of fading/ loosing the limelight & the position one used to hold’ is omni present.

So most important is to always believe & remember that each of us has been gifted of ‘some endurance & fight back powers & skills’ and we should not shy away in making that effort and fighting back & taking back that throne, which ought to be ‘taken away’ and was seemingly a distant dream because of changing dynamics & the unfavorable circumstances.

As we all have ‘a little bit Amitabh Bachchan in our blood, mind, feelings & thinking’ (whatever you say, wherever it’s hidden) and that bit we should use it to our best, for our best years lying ahead, whatever age bracket we count us in…